The Words In The Woods Lakeside Retreat, planned and executed with exquisite finesse by the Illinois-SCBWI Downstate committee of children’s writers John Bown, Louann Brown, Sara Latta, Toni Leahy and Alice McGinty.
I’ll share some brief moments here, even though it seemed that absolutely every moment was special. I hope the concepts and information shared spark not only your creativity and energy, but your desire to find a fabulous conference and do everything in your power to attend.
A lot of us took in the light Kathi Appelt shed on character during the opening workshop by introducing the concept of Controlling Belief. Many of us are used to thinking about our main characters’ occupations, how well they perform those occupations, their goals, and what is at stake if they don’t reach the goals.
Kathi stressed the importance of those aspects, but said that when we ask a different question, “What does my character believe?” we plunge more deeply into our character’s inner life. “And ask yourself,” Kathi said, “What your character’s main role is. How well does your character believe he or she is performing in that role?” Your character’s overarching controlling belief doesn’t have to be true…but it does propel your character through the story.
I could feel the impact of asking this question as Kathi spoke…And I know I wasn’t the only writer in the room to feel it. It was a light-bulb/goosebump moment.
And since the concept isn’t exactly non-complex to think about, Kathi helped us along with some examples. In KEEPER, her recently-released novel, her main character’s controlling belief is that her mother is a mermaid. In SKIPPYJON JONES, Skippyjon believes he is much more than just a Siamese Cat. Romeo and Juliet offer this controlling belief: “I can’t live without you.”
Kristin Daly, editor at Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children’s gave a powerful argument for creating emotional, lovable, layered characters that readers like – and then “putting them in peril”. Action is fabulous, Kristin said, but without showing character reactions and choices in the face of obstacles, the deep humanity of our characters is lost.
Stephen Barbara, Literary Agent at Foundry Literary + Media, gave an in-depth presentation about a topic near and dear and difficult – the anti-hero. How do you pull it off? How do you create vulnerability in, and empathy for, a difficult, misbehaving, even somewhat evil, character? Stephen patiently highlighted a number of techniques from current children’s and adult authors, including reader direct-address, and characters justifying their own behavior. Stephen recommended BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver and Lynne Jonell’s EMMY AND THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING RAT for great examples of managing the creation of fabulous anti-heroes.
As the weekend unfolded, we covered Voice, Dialogue, Plot and questions about the business in general. If I had to pick a few more points to share (and I do!), they’d be these:
• Voice: What would the ‘soundtrack’ of your story be? What musical tone would match your character’s feelings?
• “Don’t Be Afraid”: to play around with voice, dialogue (to get it fast & sharp); plot; to revise; to make your characters suffer; to be patient so that you only submit the very best manuscript you can.
• Learn and follow the etiquette of the business – manners in person and in query/cover letters matter.
Honestly, Words In The Woods was a bundle of abundant information, support and encouragement! It fueled my memory about how nourishing a good conference can be, and triggered a fabulous week of work. Now, where should I go next?
Have you had conferences that push you into high-creativity mode, too?
Carol Grannick is a children’s author and clinical social worker in private practice. Her stories have appeared in CRICKET and HIGHLIGHTS, and she writes picture books and middle grade novels. At her blog, THE IRREPRESSIBLE WRITER and in her private practice, she helps writers build and maintain resilience for writing and life.
